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A Star of Hope 
for Mexico 



By CHARLES WILLIAM DABNEY 

President of the University of Cincinnati 




Distribution of Prizes to Kindergarten Children in Mexico City, D. V. 



Published by 

LATIN-AMERICAN NEWS ASSOCIATION 
1400 Broadway, New York City 



Does Mexico Interest You? 

Then you should read the following pamphlets: 



What the Catholic Church Has Done for Mexico, by Doctor 

Paganel 

The Agrarian Law of Yucatan 

The Labor Law of Yucatan 



International Labor Forum 

Intervene in Mexico, Not to Make, but to End War, urges 

Mr. Hearst, with reply by Rolland 

The President's Mexican Policy, by F, K. Lane 

The Religious Question in Mexico 

A Reconstructive Policy in Mexico 

Manifest Destiny 



What of Mexico 

Speech of General Alvarado, 
Many Mexican Problems..., 



Charges Against the Diaz Administration, 

Carranza 

Stupenduous Issues 



Minister of the Catholic Cult. 
Star of Hope for Mexico. . . . 
Land Question in Mexico. . . . 



Open Letter to the Editor of the Chicago Tribune, Chicago, 111. ) 

How We Robbed Mexico in 1848, by Robert H. Howe > 

What the Mexican Conference Really Means j 

The Economic Future of Mexico 



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A Star of Hope forXMexico 

By CHARLES WILLIAM DABNEY 
President of the University of Cincinnati, in "The Outlook" 



What can we do for Mexico? In the first place, we can try 
to understand her. We cannot expect to help Mexico effectually 
until we first understand her people and their history, institu- 
tions, and aspirations. What, then, does the history of Mexico 
teach us? What, for example, is the meaning of the series of 
revolutions which have been going on in that country for the 
last hundred years ? 

These revolutions, including this last long one, have all, at 
bottom, been phases of a blind misguided struggle of a strong, 
ignorant people for liberty. They sprang from a desire of the 
common people to realize the benefits of democracy, whose 
catchwords had reached even to them, but whose terms they 
only vaguely understood. They constitute a contest against 
a feudal system approaching slavery. They were chiefly, al- 
though not entirely, the strivings of an oppressed people to 
win for themselves and their children a small place upon the 
soil of their native land. 

These blind efforts have failed of their ends largely because 
of the ignorance of the people and the lack of true and unselfish 
leaders. There has never been a middle class in Mexico to 
supply leaders for the people in their struggle with the feudal 
lords. Organized public opinion is the only basis for demo- 
cratic government, and this has never existed in Mexico. The 
only newspapers are controlled by the Government, by the land-n 
lords, or by the big corporations. There are no real political 
parties. The only politics are wholly personal, and the only 
political organizations are gangs formed to advance the inter- 
ests of leaders whose names they bear. There are no political 
campaigns to educate the voters, but only processions and ral- 
lies intended to impress them. There is, in fact, no free political 
discussion of any kind. Elections in Mexico, consequently, are 
either farces or frauds. 

Organized public opinion and the free discussion of political 



affairs so necessary to free government cannot exist where the 
masses of the people are ignorant. The only solution of the 
Mexican problem, therefore, will be through the establishment 
of public schools which will educate the people to know their 
rights, and train men to lead them in their struggles to win 
these rights. 

Most people think that the largest part of the Mexican popu- 
lation is a mixed race of Spanish and Indian blood. The Mexi- 
can census is inaccurate and incomplete. As Mexicans of any 
intelligence desire to be considered as having European blood, 
the returns with regard to parentage or race cannot be relied 
upon. The best authorities tell us that we mestizos, or people 
of Spanish-Indian blood, are not over forty per cent., and that 
the people of pure European blood are certainly not twenty 
per cent, of the whole. The people of pure and mixed European 
blood together constitute thus only about sixty per cent., or 
six million of the fifteen million souls in Mexico tp-day. The 
nine million Indians, more or less, constitute some fifty ab- 
original tribes in various stages of semi-civilization — and some 
still in savagery — distributed all over the country from Sonora 
to Yucatan. This vast area of Mexican territory contains only 
about twenty persons to the square mile. Were it populated 
as densely as portions of the United States, Mexico would 
support a hundred million people. Vast arid regions render this 
impossible, but it could readily support fojir times its present 
population. 

The Spanish invaders and their later followers brought a 
marvelous mixture of blood into Mexico. Spain was the great 
melting-pot of the Old World's peoples — Iberian, Roman, Celtic, 
Vandal, Goth, and Semitic — and sent all these strains to mix 
with the hundreds of Indian races supposed to have come orig- 
inally from Asia. If the blending of a variety of strong bloods 
makes a great people, Mexico should be a powerful nation. 

The Mexican people have always been sharply divided into 
an upper and a lower class, there being practically no middle 
class, and no room for one under the present agrarian system. 
The peons and Indians — people without land of their own — 
make up perhaps eighty per cent, of the population of Mexico, 
or twelve millions out of the fifteen. 

In judging this people we must also take into consideration 
the experiences through which they have passed in the cen- 
turies since the Spanish conquest. After the army of Cortez 
had swept the country and divided the land and the surviving 
Indians among his followers, they and their successors, the 
Government and the Church, combined to suck all the life-blood 
they could out of the people. Aside from ineffective protest, 
the Cluuch acquiesced in this exploitation or openly shared its 
proceeds, although it did soften its worst horrors. The material 
resources of the country were partially developed. Cities and 
haciendas were established and mines opened, but the wealth 
from both farm and mine was poured into Spain. 



Under Spanish dominion the education of the people of Mex- 
ico was resisted and retarded by many powerful influences. The 
landlords, the mining and lumber companies, preferred ignorant 
laborers because they were easier to exploit. The peon was a 
mere unit of physical force, a "hand," and they wanted to keep 
him such. All employers, therefore, united to keep him in ig- 
norance. Monastic and other religious organizations flourished, 
but they did little to educate the people. The theologians even 
questioned whether the natives had intellects like other people, 
and the whites and mixed-bloods came to be spoken of as gente 
de razon — people with reason — as distinguished from the Indi- 
ans, who were supposed to have none. By farming out taxa- 
tion and selling grants and privileges the viceroys, governors, 
and other Spanish officials added their burdens to those of the 
State and Church, and the unfortunate people bore them all. 

The social organization, consisting only of the exploiters and 
the exploited, though somewhat fluid at first, under this govern- 
ment soon hardened into tradition. Life for the poor man was 
without incentive or hope, and for three centuries the history 
of the Mexican was the dead level of uneventfulness. Under 
such conditions ten generations labored and passed away. Such 
experiences inevitably made a deep and lasting impression upon 
the character of the people. They not only widened the social 
chasm, they weakened and debased the man, making submis- 
siveness a habit and resistance impossible. With no motive 
in life except to eat, drink, and propagate his miserable kind, 
the common Mexican became idle, sensual, and brutal, the spirit 
of manana ruled his life, and a profound fatalism locked his 
spirit in death. 

Under the system of repartimientos the lands were originally 
divided among those who merited well of the Crown, and the 
native people were seized along with the land and made to work 
for the new owner as slaves. This system was so grossly abused 
that it had to be abandoned, and then a more polite way of 
accomplishing the same thing was introduced. This was the 
plan of encomiendas, under which a certain number of Indians 
were "commended" to the landowner, to be civilized and Chris- 
tianized by him. He promptly enslaved the whole lot, binding 
them to his land, which they could not leave so long as they 
were in debt. This system had for the proprietor all the ad- 
vantages of slavery as it existed in the United States, without 
its obligations. 

Many efforts we're made to abolish this system, but without 
success. The missionaries from the old country denounced it, 
some of the viceroys condemned it; but it was profitable to all 
governing classes, and it kept the Indians in order. Working 
was good for the souls of the peons. Left to themselves, they 
would wander about the country, gamble and fight. So even 
the priests were brought to think well of the plan. The land 
yielded a living easily. In that fine climate the simplest houses 
and fewest clothes sufficed. Why should the priests trouble 



themselves to educate the Indian? He was happy as he was. 
After a generation or two of monks had passed away the local 
churches came under the control of a native priesthood almost 
as ignorant as their parishioners. The ceremonies of the Church 
degenerated into the crudest formalities wrapped in the crassest 
superstitions derived from previous Indian practices. There 
were a few private schools for the sons of the rich, a few insti- 
tutes for professional training, and a few seminaries for priests, 
but no public schools, no schoolhouses, no teachers, and no 
funds provided to educate the masses. Occasionally there was 
a parochial school in which the catechism and the lives of the 
saints were taught by rote, but these schools rarely ever taught 
the children to read. Under these conditions the people drifted 
gently down the stream of years in contented ignorance. 

As is always the way, the social distinctions between chiefs 
and common Indians, between Spanish landlords and peasant 
mestizos, settled down upon the criterion of wealth. Most of 
the Indian caciques dropped into the lower class, as did the un- 
successful Spanish. The descendants of the hidalgo, as well 
as of his soldiers, failing to acquire lands or mines, slid down 
the social scale along with their half-blood kin into the great 
conglomerate mass of poor at the bottom. The constituents of 
this mass became each year more and more indistinguishable. 
By the time of the national emancipation, therefore, a popula- 
tion of five or six millions had been stratified into an upper and 
a lower class, and of the total at least nine-tenths belonged to 
the lower class. All elements are represented in the upper class ; 
all bloods are found in the lower class. The Mexican people 
are practically one. The classes differ only as they have en- 
joyed opportunity and have used it. The only differences are 
in possessions or jn traits resulting from opportunity or the 
long want of it. 

In studying the last pne hundred years of Mexico's political 
development one must keep this dark background in mind. 
These conditions, as well as the nature of the people and the 
institutions fastened upon them by their conquerors, must all 
be considered in interpreting the period of liberation which 
opened for Mexico, as for all Latin America, in the early years 
of the nineteenth century. In all our judgments of Latin-Ameri- 
can people, present as well as past, let us be fair and remember 
who they were and what they have suffered. Anglo-Saxons are 
inclined to.be too conceited and arrogant. We should remem- 
ber, for example, that the Latin conquerors preserved as slaves 
the native races, instead of killing them off or driving them out, 
and. we should also remember that it was not the makers of 
Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights, but the founders of the 
Inquisition, who gave the Latin-Americans their first govern- 
ments. 

The desire for enlightenment everywhere and always follows 
the struggle for liberty. So we find that the intellectual move- 
ment in Mexico received its first great impulse from Hidalgo 



in 1810, and progressed throughout the century by ebb and flow 
as the political revolutions came and went. Though each poli- 
tical uprising awakened the minds -"^ the people, the actual 
progress of enlightenment under the conditions described was 
necessarily very low. After experiences such as the people of 
Mexico had endured it was not possible for mere political libera- 
tion to transform them in a day or a decade into intelligent, 
self-governing citizens. Many of them were still semi-civilized 
Indians, and nine-tenths were absolutely ignorant at the opening 
of this era. What had been three centuries in the making could 
not be undone in one hundred years. 

The general movement for freedom in Latin-America was 
awakened by the successful war for independence of the Eng- 
lish colonies in America and tremendously stimulated "hj the 
French Revolution. The times were then ripe in Europe, and 
the prepared peoples seized the opportunity to win new liberties. 
But the people of Latin America were not ready ; the oppression 
of centuries had trained them so long to submission that they 
were dazed in the presence of the opportunity. When Napoleon 
paralyzed Europe, the shackles fell from Mexico almost with- 
out her knowing it. Thus Mexico got her independence too 
soon and too easily. The clock of destiny struck too early for 
her. 

For years the people of Mexico had been restless; they 
wanted something better, but they did not understand this thing 
called independence, with which the world was ringing. Mex- 
ico in the nineteenth century resembled one of her ancient 
volcanoes. The fierce heat lay smouldering within her rock- 
bound sides ; an occasional upheaval, accompanied by a few 
deep murmurings, relieved the pressure temporarily, but the 
central fires remained smothered. The great eruption did not 
come until the middle of the century. 

Some weeks ago the Pan-American Scientific Congress cQn- 
cluded its second meeting in Washington. The one note that 
ran through all the papers and addresses at this Congress was 
the unity of America and the duty of its different peoples to 
stand together. It is interesting to trace the origin of this idea 
of unity in the support of free government throughost America. 
Such ideas grow with the years, and it is not possible that ex- 
actly this conception of the duty of the various nationalities to 
each other and the world should be held by any American in 
these early days. But the root-idea that America as a whole 
stood for the right to self-government had existed in the minds 
of the seers for at lea«t a hundred years. This was the covenant 
preserved in the American ark, and to the defense of this cove- 
nant all Americans were forever dedicated. This was the con- 
tinental thought of the men in 76, and this has been the in- 
spiring principle in every declaration of independence published 
on this hemisphere. As far as I have been able to learn, the 
most significant early expression in Latin-America of this idea 
of Pan-Americanism was in.the plan of the Spanish revolutionist 



Miranda for the Grande Reunion Americana, a secret society 
organized, 1800 to 1810, for the purpose of uniting the people 
of Central and South America in a struggle for independence. 

Undoubtedly Father Hidalgo, the first Mexican liberator, had 
heard of Miranda. "El grito de Dolores," the cry from the City 
of Sorrows, as the independence call of Hidalgo was designated, 
was the first utterance in Mexico of this Pan-American idea. 
This call was, "Long live America ! Death to bad government !" 
Hidalgo did not say, "Long live Mexico! Death to Spain!" 
but "Long live America," Pan-America, the anticipated home of 
good government, as opposed to the Old World, the home of bad 
government. History tells us that he declared for the indepen- 
dence of Mexico as a part of self-governing America. Like our 
Declaration, it indeed was the demand of an oppressed people for 
the right to govern themselves, but it was also an expression of 
the ideal of Pan-America, destined to be the hemisphere of demo- 
cracy. 

Desperately angered by the interference of the Government 
with his efforts to teach the people letters and industry — for he 
had been instructing them in reading and figures and training 
them to rear silkworms and to make pottery — Father Hidalgo, 
of Dolores, on a September Sunday morning in 1810 summoned 
his pupil horticulturists and potters, forced the village prison, 
liberated the political prisoners, rang the parish bell, and called 
the people, in the name of Him who came to bring all men 
abundant life, to declare themselves free. Thus was sounded, 
by a representative of the Saviour of men, the Liberty Bell of 
Mexico. The spirit of the first democrat was moving his 
people. 

The beginnings of this century-long struggle have been re- 
cited for the purpose of emphasizing the fact that these were 
genuine uprisings of a people seeking liberty and opportunity, 
although seeking it blindly, and for the purpose of explaining 
the occasion for the next great proclamation of Pan-American- 
ism. Iturbide sought to gain support for his selfish schemes by 
declaring that there was on foot a plan for the reestablishment 
of Spanish authority in Mexico which it was his duty to pre- 
vent. Whether any such scheme existed is doubtful, but the 
belief that it did had an important influence in bringing the 
support of the United States to the new Republic. In his mes- 
sage of December, 1823, President Monroe, therefore, made that 
epoch-making utterance warning European governments forever 
to keep their hands off the American continent. The signifi- 
cance of the doctrine, understood originally to be for the United 
States only, we are just beginning to appreciate in its continental 
aspects. The events of the last two decades have shown us the 
wisdom of this forgotten doctrine, which now promises to be the 
foundation stone of the structure of our Pan-American union. 
Buoyed up by this declaration, the independent government of 
Mexico set out upon a career which, though often in desperate 
danger from violent reactions, has gone steadily forward. 

8 



For the generation following, the evil genius of Mexico was 
Santa Anna, who overthrew its constitutional guarantees and 
involved it in difficulties with the United States, and then left 
it in a condition of anarchy. 

Juarez, the little Indian of Oaxaca, was the most unselfish, 
wisest and bravest of all the Mexican patriots. He was the real 
liberator of Mexico, and the real founder of her school system 
A Constitution modeled after ours was proclaimed by him. A 
series of laws known as "Reform Laws" were passed, guar- 
anteeing liberty of worship, separation of Church and State, 
and equality before the law for priest, soldier, and common man. 
A vigorous mortmain law aimed at the immense holdings of the 
religious orders was enacted. 

It is impressive to note that Juarez understood perfectly the 
distinction between the rights of the Church and the rights of 
the people. His struggle was not against the humble parish 
priests, but against the higher clergy and the far too numerous 
religious orders. It was against the hierarchy, the successors 
of the men who in the colonial days had been the counselors of 
the kings, viceroys, and commissions, and who held tenaciously 
to .the idea that they ought to share in governing the people, 
that Juarez fought, and not against the Church of the people. 

Though the early leaders in the movement for independence 
were earnest partisans of popular education, and passed some 
elaborate laws for its establishment, they failed to carry them 
out. Perhaps it was impossible at the time. The Constitution 
of 1824, copied after the American Constitution, and establish- 
ing universal democracy, was wholly unsuited to Mexican con- 
ditions. The American Constitution was a compact entered into 
voluntarily by States having had previous separate existences, 
and made up of Anglo-Saxon men already trained in self-govern- 
ment. The Mexican States had no such history and no such 
citizens. They were States only in name. The government had 
always been strongly and autocratically Centralist, and to such 
a country and such a people the American Constitution was 
absolutely unadapted. 

The responsibility of self-government was conferred upon an 
illiterate and untrained mass of people, a large proportion of 
them practically slaves. When they were freed from Spanish 
control, nine-tenths were still under the heel of landlords. "No 
nation can exist half slave and half free," said Lincoln. With 
the masses still in serfdom Mexico made no progress in demo- 
cracy. 

The struggles In Mexico since 1810 have been one long contest 
between the forces of autocracy and democracy. The various 
parties have borne many names and have had many confusing 
associations, but have remained substantially the same two hosts 
— the army, the Church, the landlords, and mine-owners on the 
one side, and the mass of the people, for the most part landless 
and moneyless, on the other. One phase of this was the contest 
between the Centralists and the Federalists. During this struggle 



the question of which power, the national or the State, should 
be responsible for education was earnestly discussed. As, how- 
ever, the political centre of gravity was constantly shifting from 
one to the other of these conflicting powers, nothing was decided 
and little done. 

Another difficulty was the poverty of the treasuries of both 
the States and the nation. Continuous revolutions had left the 
people in a wretched condition and almost without funds. 
Haciendas, churches, and towns were alike stripped of every 
,form of wealth — the people were bled white by war. 

Such conditions gave the national government the excuse to 
turn over the financing and control of the schools to the States 
and the weak and impoverished States proceeded immediately 
to pass the business on the municipios, which, like our New 
England towns, covered large country districts. Nothing was 
accomplished by this shifting of responsibility. If. the nation 
was bankrupt, the States were also exhausted ; and, if the States 
had no money, the towns from which they derived their revenues 
were, of course, equally impoverished. So that, even after the 
authority *was given them to establish schools, the towns were 
unable to support the stupendous undertaking. 

In face, however, of these tremendous difficulties, some be- 
ginnings were made, which show how deeply the people were 
concerned. It is a remarkable fact that in the law promulgated 
by the State of Nuevo Leon (1825) the principle of compulsory 
attendance on schools was laid down. Professor Martinez, in 
his "Review of Education in Nuevo Leon," Mexico (1894), 
quotes this Constitution as commanding the city government 
"to promote the proper education of the young and establish en- 
dowed schools of primary grade, to see to the due conservation 
and right government of those already in existence, respecting 
always the rights of individuals and corporations." The same 
Constitution directs that in all villages primary schools should 
be established, in which should be taught "reading, writing, and 
the principles of numbers, the catechism of the Christian doc- 
trine, and a summary explanation of the duties of citizenship." 
It is only within the last few years that we have introduced in- 
struction in civics in our schools. 

Another great difficulty faced these early school enthusiasts, 
and this was the lack of teachers. To solve this problem the 
Mexicans seized upon the Lancastrian system of teaching the 
elementary branches, which was popular at the time in England 
and in America. It seemegl to suit their conditions exactlv, 
and, as a matter of fact, it did fit in with their impracticable 
schemes. It was the old monitorial system carried to the ex- 
treme. It proved a failure in Mexico, as it did everywhere, 
though it did some good by calling attention to the duty of 
educating all the people. 

Among the things for which the administration of President 
Diaz should receive credit were the suppression of, religious 
persecution and anti-foreign demonstrations ; the suppression 

10 



of brigandage, always a characteristic of Mexico; the develop- 
ment of the natural resources of the country, especially by the 
policy of encouraging investments by Americans and other for- 
eign capitalists ; the consolidation and improvement of the rail- 
ways ; the partial abolition of peonage ; the standardization of 
the currency; the encouragement of education; and the main- 
tenance of liberty and equality before the law. 

Though at the beginning a sincere representative of the masses 
of the people, Diaz, as his administration went on, became more 
and more involved with the upper classes. He has even been 
accused of being unfriendly to public education. He certainly 
did not wish to make education a national matter, and opposed 
a proposition to establish a centralized system of schools. In 
this he was right. The initiative in educational matters, in 
elementary education especially, should be left to the local au- 
thorities. 

In spite of opposition from his own people, who thought he 
was altogether too partial to foreign investors, Diaz pushed the 
policy of subsidies for railway lines, exemption of import duties 
on factory machinery, and relief from taxation during specified 
periods for productive industries. The result was great improve- 
ment in the economic conditions of the laboring classes, especially 
in the mining districts. But the wants of the people began to 
grow with their wages, and they began to. question and to in- 
vestigate. For centuries they had expected nothing and were 
resigned to a miserable lot, but now their very prosperity made 
them restless. They commenced to inquire why it was that a 
few men had more land than they needed, while others had none, 
and why taxation was so much heavier on the poor man than on 
the rich. 

The Diaz Government found itself unable to solve the problem 
of taxation and land tenure. Those efforts proved a failure 
which sought to put a rate upon the immense holdings of land 
that would make them unprofitable, and thus open them up 
for settlement by the small farmers. The mere effort to do this 
caused great dissatisfaction atnong the land barons, and its 
failure bitter disappointment to the people. Such were the ele- 
ments that led up to the Madero revolution of 1911. 

The unfortunate Madero's part in this struggle is well known. 
More truly than any one since Hidalgo and Juarez, he repre- 
sented the real people of Mexico. While he made the land ques- 
tion the chief one in his platform — much to his sorrow later, 
for he was totally unable to do anything to solve the agrarian 
problem — he also represented the aspirations of Mexicans for 
education and equality. Like Hidalgo, he was a dreamer. We 
admired his idealism and felt deep pity for his weakness. 

Enough has been recalled to show that this series of Mexican 
revolutions has been one long struggle for liberty, for opportun- 
ity, especially on the land, and for the right of self-government. 
It was a succession of forward movements followed by reactions, 

11 



but, as is the rule In human affairs, a little progress was reg- 
istered by each effort. 

Summarizing now the educational situation in Mexico at the 
present time, we may set down the following propositions : 

1. The present leaders of the people are thoroughly com- 
mitted to the cause of public education. The Constitutionalist 
party and its leader are pledged to the development of the 
schools. 

2. It is agreed that the initiative shall be left to the local 
committees, the municipios, and the States perhaps, with the 
supervision and direction from the national Government, but 
with no centralized control. 

3. The people are firmly determined that these schools shall 
be, as they say, "free, lay (secular), and compulsory." The 
leaders are intensely opposed to Church control of the schools. 

4. In organization the schools follow the French plan rather 
than the American, the primary grades being comprised within 
six years, four called "elementary" and two called "^superior." 
Since they were left to the initiative of the local authorities, the 
schools do not cover the field and vary much in excellence. Some 
cities have fairly good schools, but the majority of the country 
schools are poor. The instruction is generally limited to the 
three R.'s, and is very indifferently given by poorly trained 
teachers from the lower orders of society. It is safe to say that 
three-fourths of the people of Mexico are still illiterate. 

5. Mexico has nothing that corresponds to our high school. 
The institutos resemble the French lycees rather than our Ameri- 
can high schools. They may be roughly described as a com- 
bination of grammar school, high school, and the first two years 
of college, with a few professional studies included. Opposi- 
tion to the Church has led the State authorities to oppose the 
introduction of Latin and to substitute in its place modern lan- 
guages and elementary science, with the result that the courses 
are vtry superficial. In addition to the institutos are what are 
called "preparatory schools," hardly distinguishable from the 
lower grades of the institutos which give instruction in ele- 
mentary and secondary branches. 

6. Normal schools have been established in most of the States, 
and are attended for the most part by poor boys and girls. It 
is unfortunate that, owing to the prevalent aristocratic feeling, 
the sons and daughters of the well-to-do do not go into the teach- 
ing profession, with the result that it is looked down upon. 
One reason for this is that the pay is small and the sons of the 
rich expect to enter more lucrative callings, but another reason 
is that the Church frowns upon the secular normal school as 
the foundation of the whole irreligious public school system, 
which is to her anathema. This pressure on the conscience of 
the religious, combined with social ostracism, results ultimately 
in limiting the attendance to the poorest classes of youth, who, 
with nothing to lose, brave all and go to the State normal 
schools. 

12 



\ 

7. The universities in Mexico owe their origin entirely to 
the Church. The one of chief importance was the University 
of the City of Mexico, established in 1551. Opened in 1553, it 
continued throughout the colonial period and barely survived 
the revolution of 1810-21. From the beginning it was occupied 
primarily with theology and jurisprudence, its faculty of let- 
ters being secondary. As the Church ceased to dominate the 
government theology was dropped, and only law and medicine 
remained. When later these schools controlled the professional 
licenses, they became the football of politics. In this way the 
University fell into disrepute. Once or twice it was suppressed, 
and finally it was dissolved into its constituent parts, separate 
schools of medicine and law. One of the last acts of the Diaz 
Administration was an attempt to revive the University of Mex- 
ico City, which, however, failed during the subsequent con- 
fusion. 

What can we say in conclusion? There must be a way for 
the Mexican people out of their terrible situation. What is 
their duty, and what is our duty as their neighbor? It would 
be foolish indeed to propose, at this time especially, a solution 
of the problem of Mexico, but it is not foolish to try to learn 
what their history teaches with regard to their needs and their 
aspirations. 

The Mexicans must have, not only land, but an education. 
Though he has been struggling in his blind way for liberty for 
a hundred years, for the want of intelligence and of character 
he has failed to secure his freedom. A thorough system of 
schools which shall provide universal education is, without ques- 
tion, the greatest need of Mexico. 

Does the proposal of universal education for Mexico seem 
absurd? Why is it more absurd than the proposal to educate 
the Cuban, the Porto Rican, and the Filipino? It should not be 
more hopeless than the education of the Indian or the negro. 
No doubt it will require a long time even to establish the neces- 
sary schools. It will be the work of generations to quality the 
thirteen million ignorant people for intelligent citizenship, but 
education offers the only method of making men fit to be 
free. 

Believing that the Mexico of the future must be built by its 
people, and that they have little to contribute to its structure 
but their native intellectual and spiritual abilities, I have sought 
to get a just estimate of them from those who know them best. 
A native Mexican who was educated in Massachusetts and who 
has taught in the United States as well as his own country, 
where he was head of a large college and superintendent of public 
schools of a State, assures me that the Mexican peon is the 
equal intellectually of the Italian, the Hungarian, or any of the 
other immigrants among us, and fully as capable of self-govern- 
ment. A Protestant missionary teacher, who spent thirty years 
in Mexico at the head of schools, and is now connected with one 
of our universities, testifies that the Mexican peon has all the 

13 



qualities to make a citizen of a republic if he were only educated 
and given a place on the land. The superintendent of one of 
the large petroleum companies of Mexico, who has used the 
peon men for ten years, tells me that they are as teachable, in- 
dustrious, faithful, and loyal mechanics and laborers as any men 
he has ever employed. The president of the largest Mexican 
railway system, who has employed these people for twenty 
years — as track laborers, shop mechanics, locomotive-drivers, and 
conductors, as well as depot agents and clerks — is warm in his 
praise of the common Mexican, who, he declares, needs only 
an education and a chance. Many other witnesses might be 
cited to the same effect. In the course of a wide inquiry into 
the character of these people, the only pessimists found were 
among business and professional men in Texas, New Mexico, 
and California, who have come in contact with the worst types 
of Mexicans — the poor laborer seeking work, the border trader? 
usually a smuggler, or the cattle thief and bandit. Those who. 
know him best and in his own country believe the common Mexi- 
can has in him the making of a man and a citizen. 

In addition to elementary education and training for citizen- 
ship, Mexicans, of all men, need industrial and agricultural edu- 
cation. Although Father Hidalgo started his revolution in pro- 
test against interference with his industrial schools for the peo- 
ple, schools of this type have made little progress. They are 
the great need. Agriculture in Mexico and the mechanic arts 
are very primitive. The rich man objects to manual labor as 
beneath his dignity. Technical and industrial schools are needed 
to overcome this sentiment. Practically nothing has been done 
for agricultural education. In view of the richness of the soil 
and the other resources and the need of men to develop them, 
industrial and agricultural education would seem to be one of 
the most important tasks before the Mexican people. 

Mexico has no college or university of the modern type. She 
needs intelligent leaders, but she has no institution to train them. 
One of the best possible things, therefore, that could be done 
in Mexico, while helping her to start her elementary, agricultural, 
and industrial schools, would be to give her an independent 
modern college of the type of Robert College, of Constantinople. 
The advantages that would accrue to Mexico from a college of 
that type are too evident to need argument. Its influence on 
education, on politics, on industry, aria on morals would be all 
the greater because of its independence. Only such an institu- 
tion can train Mexicans in a way to make them into the wise, 
unselfish, and independent leaders the people need. 

We have pledged ourselves to stand with the other nations 
of the Western^ Hemisphere in making democracy a workable 
principle of government. Close to our doors we have fifteen mil- 
lions of people who, through ignorance and the habits that come 
of ignorance, have failed to differentiate liberty from license 
and have subordinated federalism to factionalism. Mexico can- 
not have a free and ordered government so long as the great 

14 



masses of its people are illiterate. A democracy must be based 
on an organized public opinion, and such a public opinion can be 
made possible only through a system of education which, while 
it trains in the industrial arts, also disciplines the character and 
develops leaders of scope and vision. The best aid to a man is 
to help him help himself. Our best aid to Mexico would be to 
help that nation train itself. 

In the wretched situation in which we find Mexico at the 
present time there is one encouraging element. In their dark 
night there is one bright star. It is the star which through the 
long and weary night of the last hundred years has ever beckoned 
them forward. This star is their desire for liberty and for 
education. In spite of their ignorance, stupidity, and brutality, 
this is the one thing for which we must admire the common 
people of Mexico. Through a century of struggle they have 
nurtured this desire for education, and have been true to this 
ideal of self-government. However miserable their present 
plight, and however outrageous their recent conduct, we must 
believe that, holding stronger than ever to this desire and this 
ideal, the people of Mexico are to-day nearer to the realization 
of their aspirations than ever before. 



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